Nets, Wolves Discuss Thaddeus Young
11:48am: The Nets and Wolves have spoken about Young in recent weeks and the talks have included discussion about three-way deals that would deliver Young to Brooklyn, reports Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPNNewYork.com (on Twitter).
11:37am: The Nets would have strong interest in trying to flip Kendrick Perkins for Thaddeus Young if they acquire Perkins in a Brook Lopez deal with the Thunder, sources tell Marc Stein of ESPN.com (Twitter links). The Timberwolves are willing to part with Young as they rebuild, Stein adds. The Nets and Thunder are reportedly making progress in talks that would send Lopez to Oklahoma City in exchange for Perkins, Jeremy Lamb and more.
League rules would prohibit Brooklyn from aggregating Perkins’ salary in a subsequent swap at any point through the trade deadline, but the Nets could send him out by himself. Perkins’ salary of more than $9.654MM this season would be within the matching bounds in a one-for-one exchange for Young, who makes nearly $9.414MM this year.
The Wolves insisted on Young instead of receiving Miami’s 2015 protected first-round pick from the Cavs as part of the Kevin Love trade, but Minnesota’s hopes for a playoff berth have largely vanished amid a hail of injuries and a 6-31 record. Young, who holds a player option worth almost $9.972MM this year, has compiled a career-worst 13.5 PER this season.
Perkins is on an expiring contract, and his minutes are down a tick this season, the third straight year he’s averaged fewer minutes per game. Steven Adams has replaced the 30-year-old in Oklahoma City’s starting lineup this year.
Nets Looking To Deal Brook Lopez
10:59pm: The Nets have major concerns about acquiring Stephenson, and fear that bringing him home to New York will make his personal issues even worse, Mannix reports (Twitter link)..
10:54pm: The Thunder have joined the Hornets in agreeing to the framework of a trade, but the Nets are still undecided, Broussard tweets.
10:04pm: The proposed three team deal would include Perkins heading to the Nets, Sam Amick of USA Today reports.
9:33pm: Brooklyn’s most serious conversations regarding Lopez are with Western Conference teams, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports (Twitter link). The Lakers are interested in Lopez, but likely lack the assets to get a deal done, Wojnarowski adds.
9:23pm: Charlotte is enthusiastic about getting a deal done, but Brooklyn and Oklahoma City aren’t ready to pull the trigger yet, Broussard tweets. According to Broussard’s source, the discussions are “just talk” right now.
8:49pm: The Nets are discussing a three-way trade that would send Lopez to the Thunder, Stephenson to Brooklyn, and Jeremy Lamb and Jarrett Jack to the Hornets, Chris Broussard of ESPN.com reports (Twitter link). It would take more outgoing salary for Oklahoma City to make this deal work under the salary cap, with Lopez earning approximately $15.7MM this season, and Lamb’s salary only $2.2MM. Kendrick Perkins‘ expiring contract worth $9,654,342 would seem a likely candidate to be included in any deal, though that’s merely my speculation. Such a light return for a player who was deemed the missing piece when the Hornets signed him this past offseason would signal that Charlotte is in a hurry to offload Stephenson, and the chemistry issues he reportedly brings with him.
6:24pm: The Nuggets are among the teams expressing the most interest in acquiring Lopez, Chris Mannix of SI.com reports (Twitter link).
6:15pm: Brooklyn is talking to several teams, but is specifically seeking information on Lance Stephenson of the Hornets, Wojnarowski tweets.
THURSDAY, 6:10pm: The Nets have accelerated trade discussions for Lopez with the intention of moving him soon, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports (Twitter link).
WEDNESDAY, 5:02pm: The Nets are continuing to discuss potential deals involving center Brook Lopez with other teams, Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPNNewYork.com reports (Twitter link). The Heat have recently emerged as suitors, and according to Youngmisuk, have shown strong interest in acquiring the big man from Brooklyn. Any deal involving Lopez would be complicated by his salary, which is $15,719,062 this season, and he owns a player option for 2015/16 for $16,744,218. There have been conflicting reports as to whether or not the 26-year-old will opt in next season, which could impact the trade market for the seven-footer.
Brooklyn has reportedly discussed dealing Lopez to the Thunder for Kendrick Perkins (and his expiring contract), Perry Jones, and Lance Thomas (prior to him being dealt to the Knicks), though the Nets ultimately decided they didn’t like that return for their big man. The Celtics also reportedly checked in with the Nets regarding Lopez, but this was prior to the trade that sent Rajon Rondo to Dallas, and with Boston now in full rebuilding mode, it isn’t clear if the Celtics would still be interested in acquiring the oft-injured center.
Lopez has a wealth of talent, and he can be a dominant scorer when healthy. But injuries have cut short two of his previous three seasons, and big men don’t tend to age well in today’s NBA, which makes any deal for Lopez a gamble. His numbers are certainly impressive though. In 370 career games, Lopez has averaged 17.8 points, 7.2 rebounds, 1.4 assists, and 1.7 blocks. His slash line is .510/.091/.791.
Western Notes: Bullock, Rivers, Lopez
Suns GM Ryan McDonough is excited about adding Reggie Bullock to the team’s roster because of the player’s high basketball IQ, ability to play either wing spot, and for his defensive abilities, Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic writes. “We’ve really liked his ability to shoot the ball with his size on the perimeter and his ability to defend NBA athletes on the wing with size,” McDonough said. “We’re confident that, with more time and repetitions, that he has the potential to be an elite shooter at the NBA level.” Phoenix had its eye on Bullock heading into the 2013 NBA draft, but the Clippers snagged him four picks ahead of the Suns wound up with Archie Goodwin as a result, Coro notes.
Here’s the latest out of the West:
- With Austin Rivers now a member of the Clippers, Rowan Kavner of NBA.com takes a look at what the player brings to Los Angeles. Kavner opines that Rivers will add youth, as well as some needed scoring and playmaking ability off of the bench for the Clippers.
- The Suns have a glut of point guards on the roster, as well as a number of players with maturity issues, a combination that may lead to the team being active on the trade market prior to February’s deadline, Dan Bickley of The Arizona Republic writes.
- With the rumors of Brook Lopez potentially coming to the Thunder heating up, Jon Hamm of The Oklahoman looks at how the deal could benefit Oklahoma City, as well as the risks involved. Hamm notes that Kendrick Perkins would likely have to be included in any deal for salary matching purposes. Plus, the team could end up missing Perkins’ defense, and making the trade brings team chemistry risks with it as well.
D-League Notes: Goodwin, Smith, Jerrett
The D-League has become an integral part of the NBA’s process of developing younger players, as well as a source for locating hidden gems to bolster rosters during the course of the season. You can easily stay on top of which players are coming and going from the D-League all season by checking out our 2014/15 D-League Assignments, Recalls tracker, which is updated daily. You can also find this page anytime on the right sidebar under “Hoops Rumors Features.”
Here are the latest D-League moves:
- The Warriors have recalled Ognjen Kuzmic from the Santa Cruz Warriors, their D-League affiliate, the team announced in a press release. This completes Kuzmic’s fourth stint of the season with Santa Cruz.
- Russ Smith was recalled from the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the NBA D-League, the Grizzlies announced in a press release. Smith was in the midst his third D-League assignment of the season for the Pelicans when he was included in the trade for Jeff Green.
- The Thunder have recalled Grant Jerrett from the Oklahoma City Blue, their D-League affiliate, the team has announced. This was Jerrett’s seventh jaunt of the season to the D-League.
- Archie Goodwin has been assigned to the Bakersfield Jam, the Suns’ D-League affiliate,the team has announced. This is Goodwin’s second trip to the D-League this season.
Blazers, Clippers Interested In Wilson Chandler
WEDNESDAY, 1:36pm: The Blazers and Clippers are among many teams who have strong interest in acquiring Chandler, Dempsey reports, though coach Brian Shaw denies that the team is trying to trade either Chandler or Afflalo. Chandler says the Nuggets told him they wouldn’t trade him, Dempsey writes, echoing his earlier report, though the swingman doesn’t dismiss the possibility that the team would nonetheless deal him away. Shaw clarifies that while the team isn’t shopping anyone, the Nuggets won’t turn away offers of the sort that pried Mozgov loose. The Nuggets have been “flooded with inquiries” about nearly everyone on the team, Dempsey writes.
“I’d be willing to go out on a limb and say that anybody on our team and everybody on our team, if there were an offer that was too good to pass up, everybody would be expendable,” Shaw said. “If Phil Jackson came out of retirement and said he wanted to come coach the Denver Nuggets, I’m expendable. You know what I mean? It is what it is. We all have had to deal with it at some point in our careers. They’ll be fine.”
TUESDAY, 9:30am: The Nuggets are aggressively shopping Wilson Chandler in a future-focused pursuit of assets, TNT’s David Aldridge reports (Twitter link). It appears there’s plenty of interest from other teams in the eighth-year veteran, as Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com reported Monday that the Nuggets were receiving numerous calls about Chandler as well as Arron Afflalo. Christopher Dempsey of The Denver Post also heard last month that the team had fielded multiple inquiries about Chandler, though he added that the Nuggets had told the 29-year-old that they preferred to keep him. That was before the team traded Timofey Mozgov last week in a deal that brought back two first-round picks.
The Thunder reportedly checked on Denver’s willingness to part with Chandler, according to a report from Chris Mannix of SI.com a month ago, though a trade last week may have changed the equation for Oklahoma City, too, since the Thunder have acquired Dion Waiters. Chandler wanted to play for the Pistons in the past, Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press tweets, though it’s unclear if that’s the case now. The swingman is making nearly $6.758MM this season, but next season’s salary of almost $7.172MM is only guaranteed for $2MM, putting him on an expiring contract of sorts.
Denver had been drawing closer to the realization that the playoffs are most likely out of reach, as Grantland’s Zach Lowe wrote last week, but the team has won four in a row. Still, the Nuggets are 17-20, three and a half games behind the Suns for eighth place in the Western Conference. A Chandler trade could help Denver escape mediocrity, as I wrote when I examined his trade candidacy.
Northwest Notes: Nelson, Robinson, Saunders
This season’s first 50-point scoring performance came from an unlikely source, as Mo Williams dropped 52 on the Pacers to help the Timberwolves to a rare victory Tuesday. The 32-year-old who’s on a one-year deal is still averaging only 12.4 points per game, even with the 52 taken into account. While we wait to see if Williams can stay hot and boost his stock, here’s more from around the Northwest Division:
- The Nuggets gave Jameer Nelson assurances about minutes and style of play to help him overcome his initial hesitation to head to Denver, TNT’s David Aldridge reports (on Twitter). The Celtics shipped Nelson to the Nuggets late Tuesday in exchange for Nate Robinson.
- Robinson had tired of his sharply limited playing time prior to the trade and was at times a distracting force in the locker room for the Nuggets, according to Chris Dempsey of The Denver Post. The guard, who’s reportedly reached a buyout deal with Boston, is seeking a chance to showcase his talent as he approaches free agency this summer and would prefer to sign with a contender, Dempsey writes.
- Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor hasn’t spoken with Flip Saunders about whether Saunders will coach the team again next season, as Taylor tells Charley Walters of the St. Paul Pioneer Press (Twitter link). Saunders and Taylor reached a deal that’s “open-ended” in terms of length this past offseason when Saunders, who also serves as the team’s president of basketball operations, agreed to coach the team.
- Taylor recently rebuffed interest from a suitor looking to buy the Wolves, as he also tells Walters (Twitter link).
- The Oklahoman’s Jenni Carlson, Darnell Mayberry, Anthony Slater and Berry Tramel speculate on the future of Reggie Jackson, possible deadline moves for the Thunder, and more.
Western Notes: Joseph, Jerrett, Smith
Cory Joseph, cognizant that he was an afterthought as a deep reserve on the Spurs, didn’t even ask his agent about a rookie scale extension before the October deadline because he assumed the team wouldn’t give him one, as he tells Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News. Now, amid a breakthrough year for the point guard, it seems like the Spurs will be hard-pressed to afford the raise he’ll likely merit, McDonald writes. “He always impressed me with the way he plays,” coach Gregg Popovich said. “He is not blessed with the most talent in the world, but I don’t think there is anybody on the planet who gets more out of what he’s got.”
Here’s more out of the Western Conference:
- The Thunder have once again assigned Grant Jerrett to the Oklahoma City Blue, their D-League affiliate, the team has announced. This will be Jerrett’s seventh sojourn of the season with the Blue. The 21-year-old has only appeared in four games with the Thunder this season, and has averaged 1.8 points and 1.0 rebound in 5.9 minutes per contest.
- When the Thunder inked Ish Smith to a deal using a hardship exception back in November, he was looked at as little more than a short-term insurance policy, but Smith turned that audition into a guaranteed contract for the remainder of the season, Anthony Slater of The Oklahoman writes. Smith’s work ethic impressed the coaching staff, and with Reggie Jackson‘s future with the team cloudy, Smith remains an important part of Oklahoma City’s roster, Slater adds.
- The Pelicans created a traded player exception worth $507K for Russ Smith, and the Grizzlies created one valued at $3.15MM for Quincy Pondexter, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders reports (Twitter link). Both players were part of the three-team deal with the Celtics for Jeff Green.
- Pondexter is overjoyed with the trade that brought him back to the Pelicans, Jim Eichenhofer of NBA.com writes. “It’s unbelievable,” Pondexter said. “This game takes you full circle sometimes. To be back with [coach] Monty [Williams] and [GM] Dell [Demps] and the guys, there’s no place I’d rather be right now. [New Orleans] was always a second home in the league. I’m glad to be back.” Pondexter spent his rookie season in New Orleans and then was dealt to the Grizzlies for Greivis Vasquez.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Western Notes: Curry, Jackson, Green
Stephen Curry is a legit contender to win the 2014/15 most valuable player award, opines Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group. The Warriors have the league’s best record at 29-5 and Curry’s player efficiency rating is 27.13, which ranks fourth best in the league. With those numbers, Curry belongs in the conversation for this season’s MVP award, along with James Harden, Anthony Davis and LeBron James, whose candidacy I briefly wrote about on Sunday.
Here’s more from the Warriors as well as another contender in the Western Conference:
- The arrival of Dion Waiters might mean a further diminished role for Reggie Jackson, writes Darnell Mayberry of The Oklahoman. Jackson will be a restricted free agent in the offseason and Mayberry speculates that Jackson will garner a contract worth upwards of $12MM annually. For that price, the Thunder might be interested to see if they can get similar production off their bench from Waiters for a fraction of the cost.
- The Warriors are constructed to contend for a championship this season, opines Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group. Golden State is the top ranked team in defensive efficiency this season. However, the window for the team to contend as currently constructed might be closing as key piece Draymond Green is set to become a restricted free agent. The team already has $82.6MM in salary commitments for next season and it will likely be forced to make a move if it wants to re-sign Green.
- Warriors center Andrew Bogut says he has no relationship with former coach Mark Jackson, as Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group writes. “I haven’t heard from him since [his firing]. I know he keeps in touch with some guys on the team, but I’m kind of in a different crowd I think.” The Australian big man has played well this season under new coach Steve Kerr. He is averaging 2.0 blocks per game and sports a player efficiency rating of 16.87.
Lakers Ask Pistons About Monroe, Jennings
The Lakers have asked the Pistons about Greg Monroe and Brandon Jennings in the past month, reports Ramona Shelburne of ESPNLosAngeles.com (Twitter link). They also inquired about Dion Waiters, Shelburne adds, presumably indicating that the Lakers contacted Cleveland before the Cavs shipped him to Oklahoma City a week ago.
Monroe has a de facto no-trade clause because he signed his qualifying offer from the Pistons this past offseason, and he and agent David Falk have let it be known they don’t want a trade this year. The big man would forfeit his Bird rights if he were to approve a trade, but the Lakers, with only about $35.1MM in cap flexibility for 2015/16, are set to have enough cap flexibility to sign him using cap space. The Lakers were reportedly uninterested in signing Monroe this past summer.
There have been conflicting reports about whether the Pistons were shopping Jennings, though the most recent dispatch indicates that Detroit is at least open to the idea of letting him go. Jennings makes $8MM this year and nearly $8.345MM in 2015/16, but his contract comes off the books in advance of the heavily anticipated summer of 2016, when the salary cap is set to surge. Monroe’s qualifying offer gives him almost $5.48MM this season, a bargain price, but he’s due for a significant raise in unrestricted free agency this coming summer.
Waiters is on a rookie scale contract and will be extension-eligible this summer before the deal runs out after next season. Still, it seems unlikely the Thunder would part with him so quickly after his acquisition. The Pistons, 8-1 since waiving Josh Smith, probably aren’t inclined to make a move right now, either, but the interest from the Lakers signals that L.A. isn’t content to languish at the bottom of the standings to protect its draft position. The team owes its first-round draft pick to the Suns if it doesn’t fall within the top five selections, and the Lakers are currently fourth in the Reverse Standings.
And-Ones: Drummond, Monroe, Prince
The idea of waiving Josh Smith didn’t catch Pistons owner Tom Gores off guard when coach/executive Stan Van Gundy presented it to him, given the frequent communication Gores and Van Gundy share, as TNT’s David Aldridge writes within his Morning Tip column for NBA.com.
“We didn’t really toy around with it,” Gores said. “We knew that’s what we wanted to do. We could have negotiated for more. We just said we don’t think this is the best thing to do. And after the decision was made, I think, early that morning, Stan met right away with Josh.”
Aldridge has more on the Pistons, who are up to 8-1 since parting with Smith, as we detail amid the latest from around the league:
- There have been whispers about Andre Drummond‘s level of contentment in Detroit over the past year or so, Aldridge writes in the same piece. The Pistons center will be up for a rookie scale extension this summer.
- Gores isn’t giving up on the notion of a long-term future for Greg Monroe in Detroit, as the Pistons owner tells Aldridge. Monroe will be an unrestricted free agent this summer. “We’ve always wanted Greg. We weren’t able to make the deal in the summer, but we always have,” Gores said. “He, by the way, has great character. He’s a true professional. Even though we weren’t able to make the deal, he’s been there every day. Given the new culture with Stan, I think we have a great shot with Greg. Of course, it’ll be his choice.”
- A buyout deal involving Tayshaun Prince and the Celtics is a possibility, but not a foregone conclusion, tweets Chris Mannix of SI.com, who adds that Prince and Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge will discuss the veteran forward’s situation.
- The Thunder recalled Grant Jerrett from the D-League, the team announced Sunday (on Twitter). Jerrett averaged 16.0 points and 6.5 rebounds in two D-League games on his weekend assignment, the sixth time Thunder sent him down this season.
- The Rockets assigned Isaiah Canaan to the D-League on Sunday, the team announced (Twitter link). It’s the first trip to the Rio Grande Valley Vipers this season for Canaan, who’s averaged 15.6 minutes per game in 23 appearances for Houston this year.